Probably like you, sometimes I run across quotes that are worthy of chewing on… and I usually print them out, set them aside, and forget about them. Instead, perhaps, they can occasionally become a part of conversation. Here’s one such from Michael Horton, writing in “No Church, No Problem?”, Modern Reformation, July/August 2008.

“Christ has not only appointed the message, but the methods and, as we have seen, there is an inseparable connection between them. All around us we see evidence that churches may affirm the gospel of salvation by grace alone in Christ alone through faith alone, but then adopt a methodology that suggests otherwise. Christ has appointed preaching, because ‘faith comes by hearing the word of Christ’ (Rom. 10:17); baptism, because it is the sign and seal of inclusion in Christ; the Supper, because through it we receive Christ and all of his benefits. In other words, these methods are appointed precisely because they are means of grace rather than means of works; means of God’s descent to us rather than means of our ascent to God. 

In this way, Christ makes himself not only the gift, but the giver; not only the object of faith, but the active agent, together with the Spirit, in giving us faith. And he not only gives us this faith in the beginning, but deepens, matures, and increases our faith throughout our lives. The gospel is not something that we need to ‘get saved’ so that we can move on to something else; it is the ‘power of God unto salvation’ throughout our pilgrimage. So we need this gospel to be delivered to us regularly, both for our justification and our sanctification…”